After being discovered by
Timbaland and striving to get better under his tutelage, vocalist/songwriter
Ryan Tedder and guitarist friend,
Zach Filkins, formed the band OneRepublic in 2002 in Colorado Springs and quickly proved Timbaland an astute judge of talent not only in the hip hop genre, but in the pop/rock world as well. Filkins and Tedder moved to Los Angeles soon after hooking up, where keyboardist Drew
Brown, bassist/cellist Brent Kutzle, and drummer
Eddie Fisher joined the lineup. What followed for OneRepublic was a short-lived deal with Columbia, and upon
Continued...
the deal's termination, the band was contemplating whether or not to continue, when, out of nowhere, they became one of the most popular bands on MySpace, connecting with young people who emailed them about how much OneRepublic’s songs had affected them. The band was determined not to quit and were ultimately signed to the Timbaland-launched Mosley Music Group, as the label’s first rock act. Timbaland also remixed one of the group's most highly anticipated tracks, "Apologize," and included it on his own album, 2007's Timbaland Presents Shock Value. The tune quickly became a platinum-selling single in many countries, breaking airplay records in the U.K. and America. Later that year, OneRepublic made their official public debut with the full-length Dreaming Out Loud, which went on to sell some 1.6 million albums worldwide.
OneRepublic has often been compared to acts such as
Maroon 5,
The Fray,
Keane and
Coldplay. All of them are recognized for their use of keyboardists and falsetto in the pop-rock genre, but Tedder insists that the band is influenced by a wide range of musical acts. “We're no respecter of genre,” he has said. If it's a good song or a good artist whether rock, pop, indie or hip hop, they've probably influenced us on some level...nothing's new under the sun, we're a sum of a bunch of parts." Tedder has come a long way from working in the warehouse of a Pottery Barn store, but he also hasn’t forgotten his roots, at one point saying that it was easy act like a rock band and hard to write good songs. His dedication to the craft has no doubt shone through in his musical efforts, much to the delight of millions of OneRepublic’s fans.
